Rad Moon Rising

Classically trained singer and multi-instrumentalist Hannah Bussiere Kim, better known as luna li, first shot to fame during the early days of the pandemic with a series of tiktok jam sessions filmed diy-style in her bedroom. Now, she is touring the world, having made her debut performance in Singapore at the women-fronted music festival, the Alex Blake Charlie sessions, this february. In an exclusive shoot with female during her trip here, the toronto-based independent musician casts rock star glamour in a refreshing new light

-  KENG YANG SHUEN

Luna Li is quintessentially now. Probe her on what she thinks makes a rock star, for example, and her answer is the antithesis of the hedonistic labels typically associated (unfairly or not) with the term.

"I think that the narrative around the rock star has changed so much," she tells Female in an interview just hours before her set at The Alex Blake Charlie Sessions music festival at Pasir Panjang Power Station - her first performance in Asia - three months ago. "My band members and I are not typical rock stars in the way they used to be in earlier times.

When we're touring, we try to go to bed early, make sure to eat healthily and cut down on drinking because being on the road is rough and can be really exhausting." Self-care as the new sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll? Trust a zillennial (she is of the generation, but declines to reveal her age) to establish that.

That aside, the story of how Luna Li - the stage persona of Korean-Canadian artiste Hannah Bussiere Kim - emerged onto the scene is also one that is only possible today: in a digital world that has endured its first global pandemic.